North Queensland star Heilum Luki set for surgery after scans confirm serious injury

North Queensland are bracing for at least six weeks without Heilum Luki after scans confirmed the second-rower would require surgery on his left ankle.

Luki limped from the field early in the Cowboys’ golden-point win over Newcastle, after being injured attempting to make a last-ditch tackle.

The 22-year-old was later spotted with his foot in a moon boot, and Cowboys officials have since confirmed to AAP that Luki will require syndesmosis surgery.

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Luke is expected to miss between six and eight weeks recovering from the surgery.

The Cowboys had youngster Kulikefu Finefeuiaki play 58 minutes off the bench on Saturday night after Luki’s injury, and he would be expected to start in place of him.

Luki’s surgery continues a frustrating run for the Cairns junior, whose past two seasons have been disrupted by injury since his debut in mid-2021.

North Queensland had previously released edge forward Luciano Leilua from the final two years of his contract last month, allowing him to complete a move to St George Illawarra.

Chad Townsend was the hero on Saturday night with a field goal to ice North Queensland’s 21-20 come-from-behind defeat of Newcastle in golden point.

North Queensland celebrate Chad Townsend’s match-winning field goal against Newcastle. (Scott Radford-Chisholm/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP

In a clash that featured missed chances and some diabolical errors, both sides showed they have some way to go to justify featuring in plenty of pre-season NRL top-eight predictions.

But the Cowboys’ grit to fight back from 12-0 down at halftime, and Townsend’s composure with two big plays at the death, proved enough to seal a memorable win in Townsville on Saturday.

“I wouldn’t say we deserved to win,” said Cowboys coach Todd Payten.

“But we found a way and in 10, 12 weeks no one really remembers how you won at the start of the year.

“When it mattered, we got it done but we didn’t play well.”

Semi-finalists last season, the Knights have now lost their first two games of 2024, both after collapsing in the second half.

But coach Adam O’Brien saw improvement between the troubling round-one loss to Canberra and Saturday.

“I’m really proud of them in terms of turning around a performance in seven days,” he said.

“There’s no doubt there’s some things that we need to get a whole lot better and smarter at.

“We were obviously a bit slow coming out of the blocks in the second half.”

– AAP

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